Most teams have played at least one third of their games by this point in the season. So, it seemed time to do some ratings and see who is surprising us this year and who has fallen into the dust. In the tables following you will find players ranked by Sprocket Points. The key measures are:

Sprocket Points per Game Played – The player’s Sprocket Point count divided by the number of games in which they have appeared. Dividing by the number of games levels the playing field since teams have played different numbers of games, and takes out the impact of injuries which seem higher than usual this year. This is a measure of total productivity for the times the player has played.

% Team Sprocket Points – The player’s Sprocket Point count divided by his team’s total. This provides a measure of how important the player is to his team. In this measure games lost to injury hurt the player.

Best of the Best by Position

Point GuardsJust the other day I was waxing poetic about Steve Nash and how he was a sure thing for yet another MVP. Just goes to show – pay some attention to the data before opening your mouth. First, Kidd is the most productive point guard in the league by a fair margin over the second place Nash. The telling stat here though is how much of their team’s productivity the point guard accounts for. Chris Paul, Gilbert Arenas, and Chauncey Billups all account for a higher share of their team’s production than Nash. Kidd’s gaudy 25.1% of team production is only bettered by Garnett at 29.2% and Dwight Howard at 25.2%. Nash’s back troubles have limited him a bit hurting his team share. Billups will also take a hit by the time we revisit production by position at the two thirds mark of the season.

Note that Andre Miller and Allen Iverson are neck and neck though Iverson’s team share has been hurt by the number of games he has missed.

Shooting Guards No contest at all here. Dwayne Wade is head and shoulders above the competition by either the per game or percent of team measure. Iguodala is having a very fine season, one that will most likely pick up even more with the trade of Allen Iverson.

Rip Hamilton holds down 11th place in the ranking. His lack of rebounding and assists hurt his overall game.

Small Forwards As with shooting guard, there is a runaway leader here with Lebron James standing well above the crowd. No other three accounts for even 20% of their team’s production, while LBJ comes in at 24.3%.

David Lee in New York is having an amazing year, good enough for 5th place in the ranking. For Detroit, Prince is middle of the pack at #13, behind Luke Walton and Andrei Kirilenko in total production.

Power Forwards Again, no contest. Garnett reigns supreme and accounts for a higher share of team production than any other player on any other team. The surprises in the list are Carlos Boozer and Dwight Howard who are both having substantial years. Given their production and their team’s winning records at this point in the season, both are legitimate MVP candidates.

Centers In the middle, things are a bit tighter. Marcus Camby is having another season marked by extraordinary performance and extraordinary fragility, though no more so than any of the top three centers in the ranking. Jermaine O’Neal and Yao Ming have also missed a substantial number of games. Okafor is having a serious season, accounting for the highest share of team production of any center. Biedrins is also quite productive, though on a team that puts up lots of numbers, making his share less impressive.

Ben Wallace, despite a variety of issues, has played in them all and still is the fifth best center in the league. His replacement in Detroit, Mohammed, is 26th ranked just about even with the Suns’ second string center Kurt Thomas.

Old Friends Finally, let’s check in on three old buddies, all plying their trade beyond the close confines of Auburn Hills. Milicic, Arroyo, and Evans are all playing a similar number of minutes this year in their coastal existences. Darko is far and away the most productive player, ranking 167 among all NBA players in Sprocket Points. He is the only one of the three whose production index (% team production / % team minutes) is above 100. A 110 index ties Darko for 60th position in the league with Deron Williams and Brendan Haywood, one point above Rasheed Wallace who comes in with an index of 109.

Good info Sprocket. The first thing that come to mind is, how does a players "stats" translate to wins. Next what balance is right for a given style of play. In an one or two star team you would those players to dominate "stats". On a balanced team would you expect this kind of "stats" distribution: PG 15-20% SG 20-25%...he usually shoots more SF 15-20% PF 15-20% C 15-20% Bench 5-30%...??? as a Piston fan I don't have a clue how much the bench should contribute. You understand. All this must lead to a .625+ win percentage to be construded as a successful basketball team.